America Abroad: The Serbian Death Wish

The Serbian Death Wish

Last week there was more bad news with the historically ominous dateline Sarajevo. The United Nations had pulled out most of its peacekeepers -- there was no peace to keep -- and thousands of civilians were suffering, with dwindling supplies of food and medicine. The catastrophe, in short, continues.

The people of the Balkans, it is sometimes said, have too much history for their own good. In a perverse twist on George Santayana's famous warning, they remember the past too well and therefore seem condemned to repeat it.

Take the Serbs, whose leader, Slobodan Milosevic, is most to blame for the...